Stirring apparatus for circulating color or ink in the color chest of a printing machine

ABSTRACT

Agitating apparatus for circulating liquid color material or ink in the color chest of a printing machine. The agitator or top for the color material is carried by a slider which reciprocates, in a direction parallel to the color ductor or ink roller, by means of an endless chain or belt, while the top itself rotates. A new combination of chains or belts, guide members, and rotor means is provided to insure effective stirring, while using simple driving and guiding apparatus.

United States Patent [191 Graupner [111 3,710,714 1 Jan. 16,1973

1541 STIRRING APPARATUS FOR CIRCULATING COLOR OR INK IN THE COLOR CHEST OF A PRINTING MACHINE [75] Inventor: EberhardGraupner, Freital, Germany [73] Assignee: VEB Polygraph Leipzig Kombinat f. Polygraphiche Maschinen und Ausrustungen, Leipzig, Germany 22 Filed: Nov. 9, 1970 21 Appl. No.: 87,718

[52] US. Cl. ..10l/364 [51] Int. Cl. ..B41f 31/02 [58] Field of Search ..101/364, 363, 350, 207, 208,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,648,187 11/1927 Marceau ..l0l/364 1,778,600 10/1930 Jones ..101/364 1,835,325 12/1931 Ortleb ..101/364 2,234,754 3/1941 Gegenheimer 101/364 2,849,952 9/1958 Gegenheimer ..10l/364 3,000,300 9/1961 Ortleb 101/364 3,084,625 4/1963 Gegenheimer et al. ..101/364 3,128,699 4/1964 Gegenheimer et a1. 101/364 3,292,534 12/1966 Maschinot ..l01/364 Primary Examiner-J. Reed Fisher Att0rneyNolte and Nolte [57] ABSTRACT Agitating apparatus for circulating liquid color material or ink in the color chest of a printing machine. The agitator or top for the color material is carried by a slider which reciprocates, in a direction parallel to the color ductor or ink roller, by means of an endless chain or belt, while the top itself rotates. A new combination of chains or belts, guide members, and rotor means is provided to insure effective stirring, while using simple driving and guiding apparatus.

5 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures PATENTEDJM 16 I875 SHEET 2 BF 2 MWImW/Ik mw INV-ENIOR ATTORNEY STIRRING APPARATUS FOR CIRCULATING COLOR OR INK IN THE COLOR CHEST OF A PRINTING MACHINE BACKGROUND AND NATURE OF THE INVENTION It has been known to guide an agitator slider by a I gear rack of circular form, with a flattened surface. A

slider portion surrounded this entire gear rack. In this case the color agitator was driven by a pinion secured to the agitator shaft and meshing with the gear rack, and the agitator usually was secured to the agitator shaft by telescoping the agitator with the shaft and fastening it by a screw. In such devices, guidance of the slider was rather unsteady; fabrication of the gear rack was complicated and expensive; and removal and replacement of the agitator was difficult, unless the distance between the stirring point and the ink roller was larger than is desirable for optimum circulation of liquid and prevention of difficulties caused by dirt.

In other devices, drive and guide members of the agitator were incorporated and reciprocated in a housing which is open on one of the longitudinal sides thereof, the agitator was actuated in the same way as described, and guided by a separate gear rack bar, while the agitator was secured to its shaft by a bayonet type coupling. In still other variants, known to the art, the slider is guided along a stationary shaft. In-all constructions of this type, used and proposed thus far, it was difficult either to exchange the agitator or to hold it I in truly effective position, when active, or the guides were lacking in positive control, or the mechanical elements were all too complex and expensive, or several or all of these drawbacks were encountered.

The invention overcomes these difficulties and provides a highly effective, freely interchangeable agitator with mechanism which can be made, mounted and maintained with minimum effort. This is achieved by a new combination of elements for agitator, slider and control for the same. In a preferred embodiment of the invention the slider engages upper and lower housings by outer races of anti-friction bearings, thereby holding the agitator shaft against vertical motion. The slider contains rotatable and concentric elements, the central element being a shaft extending through the entire slider coaxially with the bearing, with a flange fitted into a short holder for the agitator on one side of the slider, and secured to it by a knurled knob on the other side of the slider, whereby removal and replacement of agitators is facilitated, while an extremely simple actuation of slider and agitator is provided, along with effective means for holding the agitator shaft at right angles to its direction of travel, rotating the shaft while it travels in one direction, and resuming the rotation of the beginning of travel in the other direction.

DETAILED CONSTRUCTION:

A simple embodiment of the invention is shown in the drawing, wherein FIG. 1 is a plan view of the new apparatus and FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along lines 22 in FIG. 1.

As best shown in FIG. I a color chest is formed by color ductor or roller 1, bottom 2 and end wall 3, for the reception of color or ink liquid up to liquid level L (FIG. 2). Such liquid may be introduced into the chest by supply means S (FIG. 1). The chest is held by suitable support structure, not shown, while other structures T hold the actuating and guiding mechanism for the liquid agitator in a position generally adjacent and above the chest.

This mechanism comprises upper and lower shelves 4 and 5, best shown in FIG. 2 and extending along the axis of roller 1. The two shelves are held apart by contherein. In order to make sure that pinwheel 10 is only frictionally rotatable on sleeve 9, the ends of the pinwheel bear against a shoulder 9a and a ring 9b. The hollow shaft has pinion 12 as as ring9b, concentrically secured to its outside, in sliding abutment with an end surface of sleeve 9. Bearings 14 are provided on the outside of hollow shaft 11, one adjacent each end of the shaft. The slider or the sleeve 7 pinwheel l0 and pinion 12 are disposed between the bearings. The outer races of the bearings are in in sliding contact with longitudinally extending inside surfaces of shelves 4, 5, as shown, thereby enabling sleeve 7 to act as a slider. Hereinafter, the combination comprising slider body 9 and parts 9b, l0, ll, 12, 14, thereon will becalled slider 7.

A pin 16 on pinwheel 10 is engaged by the upper strand of an endless drive chain 15. The chain is trained over a pair of sprockets, not shown, one at each end of shelf structure 4, 5, and one of the sprocketsis actuated by a suitable motor, not shown, which may continuously operate in the same direction. The chain drive, accordingly, moves pinwheel l0 and by virtue of the frictionally rotatable mounting of this pinwheel, also moves sleeve 9, the body of slider 7, along the color chest. This sleeve can be held in the pinwheel by surface friction, as shown, or if preferred, by a yieldable detent mechanism (not shown). Sleeve 9 is further shown in FIG. 1 as having two bolts 17 secured thereto, each having a roller 18 thereon and engaging a guide track 19 in shelf 4, whereby it constitutes a small carriage, and is prevented from tilting in a horizontal or inclined plane, as will be clear from the drawing.

Lower shelf 4 is shown as also having stationary chain 20 mounted therein and extending over the entire length of the color chest, horizontally and advantageously intaut and tensioned condition, which chain is engaged by the teeth of pinion 12. This arrangement serves to rotate hollow shaft 11 when slider 7 is moved by the other chain, this hollow shaft being rigidly secured to pinion 12.

A notch 21, formed in a flange 22 on the agitator end of hollow shaft 11, is engaged by a suitable key or pin 23 on the flange 24 of a hub 25, integral with or secured to shaft 26 of agitator 8.-The inside of hub 25 is threaded, as shown at 27, and is engaged by the corresponding, threaded end 28 of an elongated bolt 29, extending through hollow shaft 11. The other end of the bolt has knurled knob 30 secured thereto by pin 31. Normally, stirrer 8 moves along shelves 4, 5, with knob shaft 11 extending through slot 32 between these shelves at the other end of the slider.

It will be seen that stirrer agitator 8, with shaft 26 and hub 25, can easily be removed from flange 22 of hollow shaft 11 of slider 7 by turning knob 30 in the proper tor 8 can extend substantially to and under the surface of ink roller 1, can most effectively circulate liquid L, and can nevertheless be removed and reinstalled with the greatest of ease. At the same time the rotatable hollow shaft 11 and pinion 12, which serve to rotate the agitator, as well as the surrounding sleeve 9 and pinwheel. 10 which serve to simultaneously reciprocate the agitator, are actuated and guided in a positive way and by inexpensive mechanism. I

' It will be understood that a return motion, at the end of each traverse of the slider, is effected by pinwheel 10. When the slider has reached either end of its path,

for example structure 6 (FIG. 1), it is thereby prevented from continuing its straight line motion, while drive chain (H6. 2) continues to move. The chain-engaging pine 16 on pin wheel 10 then'causes the wheel to turn frictionally on sleeve 9, thereby to remove this pin of the pinwheel from mesh with chain 15. Meanwhile another tooth or pin of the pinwheel (not shown) engages the other strand of this drive chain in a way well known from the art of alternating motion pinwheel devices. As a result, slider 7 reverses itself and then slides along the color chest in the op posite direction. More exact details of this reversing motion are not illustrated herein as they are not essential for the present invention.

What is claimed is:

1. ln stirring apparatus for color liquid in the color chest of a printing machine, of the type wherein shelf structure extends along the chest and a slider for carrying and actuating an agitator is longitudinally reciprocable in motions along said shelf structure, the improvement which comprises: a shaft pivotably mounted in said slider and extending therein and therefrom in a direction transverse to the shelf structure; an agitator coaxially removably joined to said shaft and disposed in said chest over substantiallythe entire width of the chest; an endless, motorized, horizontal chain in said shelf structure; pinwheel means on said slider, engageable with said chain for effecting said motions of the slider along said shelf structure; an additional horizontal chain in said shelf structure; and a pinion on said shaft, engaging said additional chain to provide means for driving said shaft and thereby said agitator to stir said liquid during said motions ofthe reciprocable slider.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1 including means for frictional rotation of the pinwheel on the slider.

3. Apparatus according to claim 1 including a first flange element, on the agitator; a second flange element, on said shaft; and a bolt extending through the slider and shaft coaxially with the agitator and threaded into the center of the first flange element to interengage the flange elements and thereby to removably secure the agitator to the slider.

4. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the shelf structure comprises a pair of shelves facing one another, the apparatus also including means for interconnecting the shelves while leaving the slider, shaft and agitator free for said motion.

5. Apparatus according to claim 4 including bearings disposed on opposite ends of the slider, said bearings having outer parts engaging the shelves, whereby the shelves provide means to counteract tilting of the slider and agitator relative to the color chest. 

1. In stirring apparatus for color liquid in the color chest of a printing machine, of the type wherein shelf structure extends along the chest and a slider for carrying and actuating an agitator is longitudinally reciprocable in motions along said shelf structure, the improvement which comprises: a shaft pivotably mounted in said slider and extending therein and therefrom in a direction transverse to the shelf structure; an agitator coaxially removably joined to said shaft and disposed in said chest over substantially the entire width of the chest; an endless, motorized, horizontal chain in said shelf structure; pinwheel means on said slider, engageable with said chain for effecting said motions of the slider along said shelf structure; an additional horizontal chain in said shelf structure; and a pinion on said shaft, engaging said additional chain to provide means for driving said shaft and thereby said agitator to stir said liquid during said motions of the reciprocable slider.
 2. Apparatus according to claim 1 including means for frictional rotation of the pinwheel on the slider.
 3. Apparatus according to claim 1 including a first flange element, on the agitator; a second flange element, on said shaft; and a bolt extending through the slider and shaft coaxially with the agitator and threaded into the center of the first flange element to interengage the flange elements and thereby to removably secure the agitator to the slider.
 4. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the shelf structure comprises a pair of shelves facing one another, the apparatus also including means for interconnecting the shelves while leaving the slider, shaft and agitator free for said motion.
 5. Apparatus according to claim 4 including bearings disposed on opposite ends of the slider, said bearings having outer parts engaging the shelves, whereby the shelves provide means to counteract tilting of the slider and agitator relative to the color chest. 